Computer systems such as personal computers (PCs) generally require periodic maintenance to assure top performance over the life of the computer system. However, in many cases, computer system maintenance and diagnosis is performed reactively when a problem arises, resulting in costly downtime for the user. Not performing periodic. checks and maintenance on a computer system can result in performance or instability issues, user frustration and unnecessary support calls, which cost the user and the system provider time and money.
Furthermore, even if periodic computer system maintenance is performed, the maintenance programs available today generally execute within an operating system environment. Therefore, much of the hardware being checked is in use by the operating system and is therefore not fully available for testing. This can result in computer system problems being overlooked.